Still hung up on food!

I am really enjoying using sparkpeople - it's great being able to put in what I eat and have the program tell me how many calories, etc. I have used. And almost all days I am totally within my limits. But, the thing I am also finding is that, even if I am not hungry, I want to eat all that I am allowed to eat that day. I plan ahead what I will eat each day (it works better for me that way) and so I know what I am allowed to eat for that day. Today, for instance, I still have half a cup of pineapple left over to eat today. I am full right now from supper (Mike and I eat late when he is working) and yet I still want to eat that pineapple - not now, but I will eat it later. I just love to eat and if I have it on the menu, I want to eat it. I know that I should eat to live rather than live to eat, but it's hard to change years and years of eating style overnight. I did do something today that I thought really worked well - I put my snacks (pineapple and fruit salad - half a cup each) into containers earlier today so that when I was ready to eat them, all I had to do was go into the fridge and it was ready to eat. So, still learning. Menu for today: breakfast - pancakes, strawberries and milk, lunch - pita with chicken, tomatoes and cucumbers, green peppers with dip, snacks - fruit salad, pineapple, supper - macaroni with spaghetti sauce and green peppers topped with shredded cheese. Supper was really yummy with the green peppers added in there - added a lovely flavour to the meal. I also added turkey meatballs to it. They didn't taste as yummy as beef meatballs, but they have less than half the fat and they were good. I would be fine without any meat, but Mike likes his meatballs with his pasta.

A delicious dinner tonight - my tongue is still watering! :-)

Today was a good day - I stayed within my limits, I did a fifteen minute walk with Mike, I drank my eight cups of water, and now I am writing in my blog. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a winning streak with my 'other goals'. Lunch was a BLT on a bagel. I decided to make it a BELT (like Tim Horton's) - bacon (chicken), egg, lettuce and tomato and cheese. It was delicious! But, I knew from the other day, that a whole one would be too much all at once. So, I ate half at lunch time and then the other half two hours later. It was so much better that way - I didn't feel overly full and yet I didn't feel hungry later on. Supper was so yummy, too - it was tortillas filled with steak, green peppers, onions, cheese and salsa. I got to have two six inch tortillas and I loved it. The dinner on Sparkpeople called for 2 ounces of meat and I decided on 4 ounces, but I really could have done with just 2 ounces, I think. Next time, I will try 3 ounces and see if that's still too much. But, another meal to go into my favourites list. :-)

Getting back on track!

I didn't get my exercise in today (had a lazy day which is rare and very much appreciated), but I did drink 8 glasses of water today and am now writing in this blog. I really need to focus on achieving these three goals each day. I did really well for the first little while and then seemed to peter out. I really feel much better drinking my eight glasses of water and also exercising each day (even if it's only ten minutes on the days that I don't do a thirty minute workout). I was thinking about how it's hard for me to do my strength exercises on Friday - so maybe I will do them on Saturdays. I am so tired by Friday that I often don't feel up to doing my strength exercises and so I just don't do them. But, I know from this past week (and not doing them) that it makes a difference when I don't do them. I start doing report cards in two weeks, and so maybe that half hour of doing exercises will be a perfect break and also might perhaps give me more energy to do those report cards. I will try and do that for a couple of weeks or so and see how that works. Today's menu: breakfast - shreddies with strawberries and milk, half a bagel with cream cheese, lunch - chicken bacon, tomato and lettuce toasted sandwich, snack - tangerine, apricot and orange bread, supper - barbecued chicken, carrots, corn, jacket potato with salsa. The salsa was so yummy on the potatoes, so I will definitely have that one again.

Small things amuse small minds? :-)

Today, as I was coming home from school, I just wanted to stop and get a pizza and a chocolate cake (it's been a long week at school). I am pleased to say that I did not stop and get those items. One of the factors is that I gained a pound this week. I was annoyed and it easily could have led me to say 'forget it' and cheat. But, again, I am pleased to say that I didn't say that, either. I really feel that if I don't get serious this time, there may not be a next time (that I will lose the weight). And I really do need/want to lose the weight. Tonight (to the small things now), I was making up my menus for the following week and I found myself getting excited about being able to have lots of fruit/granola/vegs for snacks. Very sad, eh? :-) I am happy about being able to eat smaller meals and have lots of fruit - I really love fruit and love so many different kinds, that it's easy to not get bored with the same old, same old. I can't say the same for vegetables - I do like green/red peppers or cucumbers with low cal dressing to dip in, but there's not much else (other than tomatoes in a salad). I do enjoy searching for low cal desserts that I can have once a month. Now, if they would only make a low cal lemon meringue pie. :-)

Eating out does not help :-)

I ate out last Thursday with my friend, Donna. I ate out on Monday at lunch with my teaching partner, Brandy. I ate out with Jennifer tonight. Eating out is yummy (East Side Marios twice and Swiss Chalet once), but it wreaks havoc with my eating plan. And trying to come up with how many calories I have eaten is impossible. I checked on the Swiss Chalet site and they don't list information on all their menu items. I only had salad, bread sticks and a little pasta or soup when I ate out, but still, I would have liked to have known how many calories, etc. I was taking in. I don't eat out that often and when I do eat at McDonald's with Colin, I can make sure to keep my eating there within my allowance. I am trying to eat out less often - one, so that I don't blow my calorie, etc., allowance and two, so that we can continue to save money for our cruise. So, although I might not be able to keep track of what I eat when I eat out, I am keeping pretty good track of everything that goes into my mouth. One thing that happened yesterday that annoyed me (about myself) is that I didn't measure what I was eating when I was at Krystal's. We had a yummy meal of penne alfredo with chicken, onions and green peppers. I came home and entered the information and wow, was it ever more than I thought. I have been measuring everything I eat (made from home) and this time I didn't. If I had checked out the info prior to eating, I know I would have eaten less. One more lesson learned. :-)

Eating for stress - but still within the limits :-)

Wow - what a busy week! Krystal and Alexander were here all this week as Jesse got sick and Krystal wanted to keep Alexander away from him so he didn't get sick. Krystal ended up getting sick and so Mike took care of them during the day and in the evening, I took my turn. I did, however, still do well on my eating plan. :-) However, the weather did not co-operate very well (rain, rain, rain) and so I didn't get much exercise in this week, and even my yoga class had to be missed this week due to a Kindergarten Conference I attended. But, I still lost weight (down 7 pounds now (yay me :-) I made a yummy dinner tonight and the best part was the new side order I cooked up (with Mike's help). It was called Rotini with steamed vegetables - it was made from rotini, broccoli, carrots, peas, potatoes, olive oil, salt and parsley. I wasn't fussed with the potatoes being with the pasta, but the fact that I liked it with only the olive oil and parsley and salt as the 'cover' really was incredulous to me - it was absolutely yummy! I was really leery about whether I would like this dish due to it not having much of a sauce - I was very pleasantly surprised. Mike and I both agreed that next time we would just use the rotini without the potato. I am enjoying some of these new recipes from sparkpeople.com. This morning, breakfast was peanut butter on one slice of toast, yogurt and milk, lunch - turkey burger, snack - granola bar, raspberries, sorbet and supper I have already mentioned. I didn't get my water in today (got some, but not the whole 8 glasses). I find that not having my water bottle at home really makes a difference in whether I get my 8 glasses in each day. I think that I need to make a trip to the store and get another water bottle for home.

Thinking done today

Today, on my way up to Colin's for our date night, I was a bit hungry (I had been that way all day) and so I had to make a decision about what to do. I had two choices: don't do anything and hope that Terri-Ann had dinner ready when I got up there, or two: stop at Tim Horton's and get a hot chocolate. I really thought about this one and was pleased that I did. I weighed the pros and cons and decided that I would stop and get one. As it turned out, Terri-Ann did have dinner ready (and a yummy one it was, too) and so I could have foregone the hot chocolate, but I didn't know that it was going to be ready and so I didn't feel bad when I got there. The dinner (black bean casserole) was so yummy that I had a small second helping. I was a bit hungry and so I decided to have a little more. What I should have done was had about half of the little more (I am still a bit full three hours later). So, a pretty good day in that I did think this time about one thing - and in the future, if I feel hungry after I have eaten, I think I will wait a half hour and see if I am still hungry. I am sure that if I had done that tonight, I wouldn't have eaten any more (although it was so yummy, I am sure I would have wanted to. :-) Breakfast today was mini wheats, lunch - tuna sandwich and cucumbers with dressing, snacks - orange, crackers with jam. I am not sure why I was so hungry - I think that the meals were enough food - maybe my body just requires more food on some days. I will have to see if I can see a pattern if I have another 'hungry' day.